The Narayanastra is the personal missile weapon of Vishnu in his Narayana form. This astra (“weapon” in Sanskrit) lets loose a powerful tirade of millions of deadly missiles simultaneously. The intensity of the shower increases with resistance. The only defense is showing total submission before the missiles hit, which will cause them to stop and spare the target.

Ashwathama, a Kuru warrior-hero in the epic Mahabharata unleashes the weapon on the Pandava forces. Lord Krishna, who is the Avatara of Vishnu tells the Pandavas and their warriors to drop their weapons and lie down on the ground, submitting completely to the power of the weapon. The secret of the weapon was known by only three warriors: Drona, Aswatthama, and Krishna. It was also said that the weapon can be used only once in a war and if tried to use it twice it would devour the user’s own army.

When targeted, the Pandava hero Bhima refuses to surrender, thinking it cowardice, and attacks the downpour of fiery arrows. The Narayana weapon concentrates its shower upon him, and he is steadily exhausted. He is not killed, however, as Krishna and his brothers restrain him in time.

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. The substance has a solid state called ice, and a gaseous state known as water vapor or steam. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface. It has many distinct properties critical for the proliferation of life that set it apart from other substances. It carries out this role by allowing organic compounds to react in ways that ultimately allow replication. All known forms of life depend on water. Much of the universe’s water is produced as a byproduct of star formation. When stars are born, their birth is accompanied by a strong outward wind of gas and dust. When this outflow of material eventually impacts the surrounding gas, the shock waves that are created compress and heat the gas. The water observed is quickly produced in this warm dense gas.

Holy water is water that has been blessed and set apart for baptism. It is also used as a sacrament. Holy water is kept in the font, the church furnishing used for baptisms, which is typically located at the entrance to the church. Its location at the entrance serves as a reminder of the centrality of baptism as the primary rite of initiation into the Christian faith. As a reminder of baptism, Roman Catholics dip their fingers in the holy water and make the sign of the cross when entering the church. An aspergill or aspergillum is a brush or branch used to sprinkle the water. An aspersorium is the vessel which holds the holy water and into which the aspergillum is dipped. Salt may be added to the water where it is customary.

In Catholicism, holy water, as well as water used during the washing of the priest’s hands at mass, is not allowed to be disposed of in regular plumbing. Roman Catholic churches will usually have a special basin that leads directly into the earth for the purpose of proper disposal. A hinged lid is kept over the holy water basin to distinguish it from a regular sink basin, which is often just beside it. Items that contain holy water are separated, drained of the holy water, and then washed in a regular manner.

In Ancient Greek religion, a holy water called chernips was created when extinguishing in it a torch from a religious shrine. Many Muslims believe that water from the The Well of Zamzam in Mecca is divinely blessed. It is also believed to have supernatural properties. The Sikhs prepare holy water, which is called amrit, and used in a ritual Sikh baptism. Hindus believe that the water from the river Ganges is holy.

Fluorescence is a luminescence that is mostly found as an optical phenomenon. The term fluorescence was coined by George Gabriel Stokes in a 1852 paper. The name was given as a description of the essence of the mineral fluorite, composed of calcium fluoride, which gave a visible emission when illuminated with UV radiation.

The common fluorescent tube relies on fluorescence. Inside the glass tube is a partial vacuum and a small amount of mercury. An electric discharge in the tube causes the mercury atoms to emit light. The emitted light is in the ultraviolet range, is invisible, and is harmful to most living organisms. The tube is lined with a coating of a fluorescent material, called the phosphor, which absorbs the ultraviolet and re-emits visible light.

All plants, algae, and cyanobacteria are naturally fluorescent, since chlorophyll a is fluorescent. Some flowers also contain other more visibly fluorescent pigments like betaxanthins, increasing visibility to pollinators.

Plants have also been genetically modified to fluoresce. There are many types of green fluorescent proteins that absorb and emit at different wavelengths. This enables the production of many differently labeled fluorescent molecules in a single plant.

Plant fluorescence is being found to be highly useful for the University of Florida and the NASA staff. These individuals are working together to learn more about the planet Mars. These scientists and engineers have chosen the Arabidopsis mustard plant to go to Mars, for many reasons.

Reporter genes have been added to this plant to glow for different environmental stressors. These stressors include temperature, drought, disease, metal content in the soil and peroxides. Each stressor will glow at a different wavelength that will be monitored. By doing such an experiment more will be learned about the environment on Mars in order to modify plant life to be able to survive there.

Crude oil (petroleum) fluoresces in a range of colors, from dull brown for heavy oils and tars through to bright yellowish and bluish white for very light oils and condensates. This phenomenon is used in oil exploration drilling to identify very small amounts of oil in drill cuttings and core samples.

Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. The movement regards aspects of the human condition, such as disability, suffering, disease, aging, and involuntary death as unnecessary and undesirable. Transhumanists look to biotechnologies and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Dangers, as well as benefits, are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.

Although the first known use of the term dates from 1957, the contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s when futurists in the United States began to organize what has since grown into the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist thinkers predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label posthuman”. Transhumanism is therefore sometimes referred to as a form of transformational activism influenced by posthumanist ideals.

Although some transhumanists report a strong sense of secular spirituality, they are for the most part atheists. A minority of transhumanists, however, follow liberal forms of Eastern philosophical traditions such as Buddhism and Yoga or have merged their transhumanist ideas with established Western religions such as liberal Christianity or Mormonism. Despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as immortality.

Several controversial new religious movements, originating in the late 20th century, have explicitly embraced transhumanist goals of transforming the human condition by applying technology to the alteration of the mind and body. However, most thinkers associated with the transhumanist movement focus on the practical goals of using technology to help achieve longer and healthier lives, while speculating that future understanding of neurotheology and the application of neurotechnology will enable humans to gain greater control of spiritual experiences, and thus achieve more profound self knowledge.

Transhumanist thought and research depart significantly from the mainstream and often directly challenges orthodox theories. The very notion and prospect of human enhancement and related issues also arouse public controversy. Criticisms of transhumanism and its proposals take two main forms: those objecting to the likelihood of transhumanist goals being achieved, and those objecting to the moral principles or world view sustaining transhumanist proposals or underlying transhumanism itself. However, these two strains sometimes converge and overlap, particularly when considering the ethics of changing human biology in the face of incomplete knowledge.

Critics or opponents often see transhumanist goals as posing threats to human values. Some also argue that strong advocacy of a transhumanist approach to improving the human condition might divert attention and resources from social solutions. Sometimes there are strong disagreements about the very principles involved, with divergent views on humanity, human nature, and the morality of transhumanist aspirations. 

One transhumanist solution proposed by Nick Bostrom is differential technological development, in which attempts would be made to influence the sequence in which technologies developed. In this approach, planners would strive to retard the development of possibly harmful technologies and their applications, while accelerating the development of likely beneficial technologies, especially those that offer protection against the harmful effects of others.

Satyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mahatma Gandhi. He deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campaigns he led during the civil rights movement in the United States.

In traditional violent and nonviolent conflict, the goal is to defeat the opponent or frustrate the opponent’s objectives, or to meet one’s own objectives despite the efforts of the opponent to obstruct these. In satyagraha, by contrast, these are not the goals. The Satyagrahi’s object is to convert, not to coerce, the wrong-doer. Success is defined as cooperating with the opponent to meet a just end that the opponent is unwittingly obstructing. The opponent must be converted, at least as far as to stop obstructing the just end, for this cooperation to take place.

The essence of Satyagraha is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the antagonists themselves, as opposed to violent resistance, which is meant to cause harm to the antagonist. A Satyagrahi therefore does not seek to end or destroy the relationship with the antagonist, but instead seeks to transform or purify it to a higher level. A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a silent force or a soul force, a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his famous I Have a Dream speech. It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a universal force, as it essentially makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe.

Gandhi contrasted satyagraha, or holding on by truth, with duragraha, or holding on by force. He wrote: “There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.

Civil disobedience and non cooperation as practised under Satyagraha are based on the law of suffering, a doctrine that the endurance of suffering is a means to an end. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non cooperation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the cooperation of the opponent consistently with truth and justice.

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets.

The earliest recorded forms of paper were in use in Egypt in around 3500 BC, made from the papyrus plant. True paper is believed to have originated in China in approximately the 2nd century AD, although there is some evidence for it being used before this date. China used paper as an effective and cheap alternative to silk. The use of paper spread from China through the Islamic world, and entered production in Europe in the early 12th century. 

In America, archaeological evidence indicates that a similar parchment writing material was invented by the Mayans no later than the 5th century AD. Called amatl, it was in widespread use among Mesoamerican cultures until the Spanish conquest. The parchment is created by boiling and pounding the inner bark of trees, until the material becomes suitable for art and writing.

Together with the invention of the fountain pen and the mass produced pencil of the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam driven rotary printing press, wood based paper caused a major transformation of 19th century economy and society in industrialized countries. With the introduction of cheaper paper, schoolbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and newspapers became gradually available by 1900. Cheap wood based paper also meant that keeping personal diaries or writing letters became possible and so, by 1850, the clerk, or writer, ceased to be a high-status job.

The original wood-based paper was acidic due to the use of alum and more prone to disintegrate over time, through processes known as slow fires. Documents written on more expensive rag paper were more stable. Mass-market paperback books still use these cheaper mechanical papers, but book publishers can now use acid-free paper for hardback and trade paperback books.

Although paper had been known as a wrapping and padding material, the first use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China. During the Ming Dynasty, it was recorded that 720,000 sheets of toilet paper two by three feet in size were produced for the general use of the Imperial court at the capital of Nanjing. It was also recorded that for Emperor Hongwu’s imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was perfumed.

The standard 8.5″ x 11″ size stems from the original size of a vat that was used to make paper. At the time, paper was made from passing a fiber and water slurry through a screen at the bottom of a box. The box was 17″ deep and 44″ wide. That sheet, folded in half in the long direction, then twice in the opposite direction, made a sheet of paper that was exactly 8.5″ x 11″.

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic and theologian. Born in 1688, Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity.

Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other.

In 1744 he traveled to the Netherlands. Around this time he began having strange dreams. Swedenborg carried a travel journal with him on most of his travels. It provides a first-hand account of the events of his transformation. Analyses of the diary have concluded that what Swedenborg was recording in his Journal of Dreams was a battle between the love of his self, and the love of God.

There are three well known incidents of psychic ability reported in literature about Swedenborg. The first was from July 29, 1759, when during a dinner in Gothenburg, he excitedly told the party at six o’ clock that there was a fire in Stockholm, that it consumed his neighbour’s home and was threatening his own. Two hours later, he exclaimed with relief that the fire stopped three doors from his home. Two days later, reports confirmed every statement to the precise hour that Swedenborg first expressed the information.

The second was in 1758 when Swedenborg visited Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden, who asked him to tell her something about her deceased brother Augustus William. The next day, Swedenborg whispered something in her ear that turned the Queen pale and she explained that this was something only she and her brother could know about. The third was a woman who had lost an important document, and came to Swedenborg asking if a recently deceased person could tell him where it was, which he was said to have done the following night.

Swedenborg considered his theology a revelation of the true Christian religion that had become obfuscated through centuries of theology. However, he did not refer to his writings as theology since he considered it based on actual experiences, unlike theology. Neither did he wish to compare it to philosophy, a science he discarded because it “darkens the mind, blinds us, and wholly rejects faith”.

A Pukwudgie is a two or three foot tall troll-like being from the Native American Wampanoag. Their features resemble those of the Native Americans, but with enlarged nose, fingers and ears. Their skin is described as being grey, smooth and at times has been known to glow.

In Native American lore, Pukwudgies can appear and disappear at will, transform into other animals, use poison arrows, and can create fire at will. Pukwudgies control Tei Pai Wankas, which are believed to be the souls of Native Americans they have killed.

Native Americans believed that Puckwudgies were best left alone. When you see a Puckwudgie you are not supposed to mess with them or they will repay you by playing nasty tricks on you, or following you and causing trouble. They were once friendly to humans, but then turned against them. They are known to kidnap humans, push people off of cliffs, attack their victims with short knives and spears and to use sand to blind their victim.

Legends of the Pukwudgie began in connection to Maushop, a creation giant believed by the Wampanoag to have created most of Cape Cod. He was beloved by the people, and the Pukwudgies were jealous of the affection the Natives had for him. They tried to help the Wampanoag, but their efforts always backfired until they eventually decided to torment them instead.

They became mischievous and aggravated the Natives until they asked Quant, Maushop’s wife, for help. Maushop collected as many Pukwudgies as he could. He shook them until they were confused and tossed them around New England. Some died, but others landed, regained their minds and made their way back to Massachusetts.

Satisfied he had done his job and pleased his wife, Maushop went away for a while. In his absence, the Pukwudgies had returned. They again changed their relationship with the Wampanoags. They were no longer a nuisance, but began kidnapping children, burning villages and forcing the Wampanoag deep into the woods and killing them. Quant again stepped in, but Maushop, being very lazy, sent his five sons to fix the problem.

The Pukwudgies lured them into deep grass and shot them with magic arrows. Enraged, Quant and Maushop attacked as many as they could find and crushed them, but many escaped and scattered throughout New England again. The Pukwudgies regrouped and tricked Maushop into the water and shot him with their arrows. Some legends say they killed him while other claim he became discouraged and depressed about the death of his sons.

Pukwudgie encounters have been reported in the Freetown Fall River State Forest in Massachusetts, which includes the 227 acre Watuppa Reservation, which belongs to the Wampanoag Nation. There have been several unexplained suicides at a ledge in the state forest and that has been linked by some to the Pukwudgie lore of pushing people off of cliffs.